Hope and Keen

 What ? Next you be telling me that Newman and Baddiel have split !

Hope and Keen..........there's an act for the teenagers eh ? Going back a bit but they were a kind of Chuckle Brothers or Trev and Simon of their day. As I recall they toured in a crazy bus..........might go well with our crazy coach............he was livid last week wasn't he ?

So, three more loans arrive at the Valley and we thought we'd seen the last of this nonsense after last season ! Well, no in fact. However, these are very different circumstances and you cannot argue that we don't need them or they aren't justified.

The only issue is that we now find ourselves in need of some loan consolidation as we now have 7 loanees and are, I believe, only able to have 5 in the squad. " It's deja vu all over again ! " Pardew would be impressed.

Who to leave out. Obviously Warner will be in the squad so that means 2 from 6 but hang on....... I think we all know that really it comes down to leaving out 2 from 5..... nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more !

I'll be very disappointed for Randolph if he doesn't get at least one chance to stake a claim for the goalie jersey. He's waited patiently in the background for some time and strikes me as a very loyal player.

I wasn't impressed with Borrowdale on Saturday and that Parky described his performance as " steady " speaks volumes. Still it was his first game I suppose and guess he deserves a bit more time.

Forster may be knocking on a bit but still seems to have an eye for goal and let's hope he can produce for us. With his contract up at the end of the season he has something to prove.

As Fergie once said " football, bloody hell ! ". I keep giving up on automatic promotion ( hand on heart, I still think it's beyond us ) but then you look at the table, imagine a couple of wins, Leeds still losing and the Spanners suffering a dip and suddenly it all seems on again !

After game 7 this season it's not been possible to predict Parky's starting eleven and none more so than the one for this weekend.................. goodness only knows !

I'm not there this Saturday as I have a long standing appointment watching the Saints - LV Cup Winners 2010 - play the Wasps at Franklin's Gardens. This is another Sky appearance for the Saints with a 5.30pm kick off. This means, sigh, another leisuely lunchtime beer prior to kick off and no doubt post match musings over a couple more later.

I'll be delighted if the day is made complete by a match win double of Addicks and Saints, like all of us I can but ( Mike ) Hope and that's where I came in of course !

Cone On You Reds !